Former governor of Kebbi State, Senator Mohammad Adamu Aliero, has punctured claims that President Umaru Yar'Adua has jettisoned the policies put in place by the administration of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo.

In an interview with Daily Sun, Aliero, the lawmaker representing Kebbi Central Senatorial zone in the Upper Chambers of the National Assembly said there are no major differences in the policies of Yar'Adua and Obasanjo.
“I don't see any difference between the policies of President Obasanjo and President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua,” he said.

“Obasanjo gave priority attention to power and President Yar'Adua is trying his best possible be to make sure that all the fundamentals are laid on the table before he starts doing it.”
He spoke on a number of national issues as presented below:

The President is supposed to have presented the 2009 Appropriation Bill, but up to this moment nothing has been done. Is this delay connected to the falling price of crude oil?
Well, the delay is not unconnected with the downturn of the price of oil in the international market. As you rightly know, oil was selling for up to about $145 per barrel this year, and suddenly it started coming down to about $48 per barrel. This is unprecedented if you consider what happened in the last two years.

So all the permutations and combinations of the budget will have to change in view of this development. Initially, the Federal Government wanted to cut down the price of oil to about $55 per barrel, but because of the recent development, they have to reconsider that stand and right now we are thinking of about $45 per barrel. So this will involve a lot of changes. It will involve a lot of calculations and a lot of prioritization will have to be done. Projects that are considered essential will have to be given priority and those not considered essential will have to be reduced. I am sure this week, Mr. President will finish all the Arithmetic and send the budget to the National Assembly. This time around, we are already promising that the budget will be treated expediently.

Why is Senator Adamu Aliero willing to jettison his senatorial seat for a ministerial appointment and from what we heard, Mr. President said he was not going to appoint any of his former colleagues as ministers, but it looks like now he has changed from that direction?
I think I will refer you to the first answer that I gave I don't want to react to speculations and I would want to stop at that for now.

The PDP is now 10 years on ground. How would you assess the party and what are the lapses?
The PDP as a political party has grown big and it will continue to grow big. Considering the fact that when it started in 1999 or 98, it had about 21 states and in 2003, it got 28 states and 2007, I think 29 states. So I would say that it has blossomed into a very big political party. It has blossomed into a national political party that is capable of forging unity and stability of this country. But it has its own problems. Obviously, the bigger you are, the more problems you are likely to face. There are people of different characters, there are people of different socio-economic background in the PDP and certainly, there are bound to be some 'buts'. The party is bound to encounter some problems because of this politics. However, the leadership of the party is doing its very best to make sure that whatever problems it has, it finds solution to them. We always want to forge ahead as a nationally cohesive political party.

One would have thought as products of the same party, President Yar'Adua would continue with the policies of the former President.
I don't see any difference between the policies of President Obasanjo and President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua. Obasanjo gave priority attention to power and President Yar'Adua is equally doing the same thing. The difference is that Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is trying his possible best to make sure that all the fundamentals are laid on the table before he starts doing it. In the case of Obasanjo, he was so much in a hurry that some fire brigade approach was adopted in finding solution to power problems and as a result of that we went into serious stalemate.

We didn't progress much but I'm sure that with the way Yar'Adua is tackling the power problem, we will see light at the end of the tunnel. If you consider Agriculture, Obasanjo gave priority attention to agriculture. Equally, Umaru Musa Yar'adua is doing the same thing. Every year, farmers are given fertilizers. Tractors were procured and distributed to all the states of the federation. A lot of assistance is given to states and research institutions to conduct research in agriculture and disseminate their findings to the states or to the farmers. If you check education, it's the same thing. Continuously, since Obasanjo came in the budget of education increased, the same thing with Umaru Musa Yar'Adua. So there is not much difference. It's just a question of attention or focus to a particular sector. Yar'Adua is focusing so much attention on security, power and poverty while Obasanjo had a wider range of priorities and it was difficult to really focus attention on all of them.

Nigeria is now about 10 years into democracy. Looking at the way Americans conducted their elections, which some of your members observed, what lessons do you think Nigeria could learn from the American politics? And the president-elect, Barack Obama, an African-American, can we expect something very tangible this time from America?
If you consider American election and you compare it with that of Nigeria, there are a number of lessons we could learn.
The American election that gave rise to the emergence of Barack Obama as the president-elect has really crushed all barriers of ethnicism, racism, religion, colour and what have you. Purely, Barack Obama was elected based on his acceptability. The Americans believed that he is a better material for the presidency of America than his opponent, John Mccain. We are sincerely praying that a day will come in Nigeria when somebody will emerge based on his competence, integrity and natural acceptance.

Is it possible to eliminate rigging in Nigerian elections?
Yes, it is possible to eliminate rigging if we are sincere and fair to our fellow opponents. There is so much selfishness in Nigerian politics, there is so much tension before and even after elections, and at times the ground is not even level. There is no level playing field for all the political actors, and once the ground is not level, you can't expect free and fair elections. As long as there is no fairness, fair play, there is bound to be rigging in the conduct of the elections.

How would you assess the implementation of the due process hype, various levels of government in this country are chanting the slogan of due process with very few actually observing it. Does the end justify the means?
Well, due process is good but it should not be done to the detriment of the society. Different governments have different ways of implementing due process. Even at the national level, we have serious problems to the extent that the entire thing had to be decentralized. Now, ministries are in charge of their own due process. Due process is being established in every ministry, maybe only certain amount will be referred to the headquarters. This is done to avoid delays and to ensure speedy implementation of government policies and programmes. Due process should not be implemented at the expense of the people, a situation where projects are being delayed or are not being implemented certainly will not augur well for the society.

And how will you rate the judiciary vis-à-vis what happened in Edo State?
Well I commend the judiciary, so far so good. All the judgments they have been giving, quite honestly, are bold and courageous. I commend them for being fair and just. I commend them for doing things that are right. I commend them for strengthening democracy. And for what happened in most of the states where elections have been annulled, I am sure it will be a lesson to politicians to conduct themselves properly during the conduct of elections.

What are your expectations for 2011 elections?
What happened in 2007 obviously will have direct bearing with 2011 elections. The mistakes that were made in 2007, hopefully will not be committed in 2011 because we are learning. You talk about American democracy; American democracy is over 200 years old. Ours, well after the restoration of democracy in 1999, is just about nine and a half years now. Certainly mistakes are bound to be committed, You don't expect us to conduct elections just like the Americans or British are conducting their own because they have perfected the system because of long period of practice. We hope that all the mistakes we committed in 2007 will not be repeated in 2011.

As a member of the Senate, you also belong to a committee or some committees, would you let us in into the Senate activities especially as it concerns your own committees?
Yes I am the vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Education. Since we resumed in 2007, we have been working assiduously to see that we change the fortunes of education in this country. We met a lot of decay particularly at the university level, and we are doing our very best to ensure that we clear all the decay. Problems of under-funding, brain drain, old and outdated curriculum, cultism, are some of the issues we are tackling.

As a matter of fact, we will soon conduct National Educational Summit and all stakeholders will be invited. At the end of the summit, we will come out with far reaching resolutions and these resolutions will be debated at the Senate and finally, we will send it to the ministry of education for implementation. This is how far we are doing in the education committee. In agriculture, we are also working very hard to boost agricultural production in this country.

Problems of farmers, storage, yield per hectare, marketing, mechanization, land tenure, are some of the issues we are constantly discussing at the Senate Committee on Agriculture and we even had cause to visit some of the states in the North to find out the problems militating against agricultural production and we proffered solutions. We know in this part of the country, mostly in the Northern states, that agriculture is a seasonal activity, and we are doing our very best to make it an all year round activity by introducing irrigation schemes all over the country or all over the states where agriculture is a seasonal activity. So this is how far we are doing in the Senate Committee on Agriculture.

I am also a member of the Senate Committee on Housing, Senate Committee on Niger Delta, and Senate Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity. We are discussing and deliberating on how the problems of these sectors can be solved for the betterment of Nigerian people.

You were very vocal during your tenure as governor of Kebbi State concerning the HYPADEC Bill, now that you are on the Senate what is happening to the Bill?
Actually, immediately we resumed in 2007, we decided to bring the Bill that was passed by the previous Senate and it went through the first and second and luckily the third readings and we passed it at the Senate. It only remains to be passed by the House, and we are working with our colleagues at the House of Representatives to ensure that they equally pass it. And once we pass it, I can assure you, Mr President will assent to it, and once it is assented to it is going to have positive impact on the lives of the communities that are hosting the hydroelectric dams in the country. These communities are in Kebbi, Niger, Kwara and Kogi States. There are other states that are equally trying to generate electricity from hydro-power. Bauchi, Plateau, Kaduna and Taraba states are trying to do that. Once they start generating power, they will come on board as beneficiary states, and certain amount of money will be given to the host communities to take care of the environmental degradation caused by the establishment of these dams.

How would you describe your eight years of stewardship in Kebbi State? Would you say you achieved what you set out to do in the first place?
My eight-year administration in Kebbi State was very eventful. It was a very memorable experience to the people of Kebbi State. I would say they never had it so good. I know when I came in, virtually everything in the state was at its lowest ebb, and we started with education. We did a lot of renovation, rehabilitation, expansion and even establishing new schools. When we finished with that, we moved to the housing sector. Housing was in dire need.

There were no houses in Kebbi state to the extent that people lived in satellite villages to come to work in Birnin Kebbi. In the eight years of my administration, we were able to build over 1500 houses and before we left we equally awarded another contract for the construction of an additional 500 houses. Within the same period we were able to construct a number of roads. I remember the Birnin-Kebbi-Jega Road, Birnin-Kebbi-Argungu Road, Sarandosa-Suru Road, Augie-Nasini Road, Bena-Wasagu Road, Gulumbe-Aliero Road, Koko-Besse Road. We started the construcion of Dabai-Mahuta road, Kaoje-Illo road. This is unprecedented in the history of this country. During the period, we were also able to construct a government house, probably one of the best in the country, and a presidential lodge also one of the best in the country. In fact, a number of governors who came to greet us said it's a masterpiece.

They asked how we did it. So we left landmark achievements in Kebbi State. That's why I said the period had been memorable, eventful, and the people of Kebbi state will never forget it. If you look at the health sector, we did a lot in that sector at the school of nursing, look at the rehabilitation of virtually all the major hospitals in the state. When we came in, they were all in shambles to the extent that people went to Sokoto for their medical needs, because most of the hospitals in the state were in terribly bad shape. But within this period, we were able to rehabilitate all of them. We were even able to construct new ones. We equipped them with state of the art diagnosis equipment all over the state. Electrification is also one area where we did wonderfully.

When we came in, in 1999, I think we had only about 18 towns and villages that were connected to the national grid. But thank God that by the time I left office in 2007, we had more than 700 towns and villages that were connected to the national grid. Water - in virtually all the major towns, we were able to rehabilitate and expand all the major waterworks here in Birnin- Kebbi, Argungu, Zuru and Yauri. Semi urban water supply schemes were also established in a number of towns and villages- Ribah, Kamba, Aliero, Jega, Maiyama, Koko, etc and a number of boreholes were constructed all over the 21 LGAs that we have in the state. We started with seven, later we increased it to 11. By the time we left, I know we had close to about 2,300 boreholes being drilled by my administration, so this is just to mention little bit of what we did.

Was there anything you felt you should have done but time ran out on you and you wish you had done it?
To be honest with you, one would never be satisfied with what he has done because the society is dynamic and if you solve this problem today, tomorrow another one will also come up. But we have done our very best and I believe that the people of Kebbi State are aware of that. Whoever is coming or the present governor is also equally doing his best. So he will continue solving the problems of the people of Kebbi State where we left off.

Everyone knows you to be a workaholic. When do you rest and how do you unwind?
I rest at the time I want to rest. Anytime I'm tired I go to bed and rest. I do games, I jog and swim sometimes.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2008/dec/01/national-01-12-2008-004.htm

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